CEO stresses need to make products with security outcomes, but are secure by default.
A solid identity foundation is only achieved with a solid security foundation, “it’s the cornerstone of what we're all trying to do with security” according to Okta CEO Todd McKinnon.
Speaking at an event hosted at the McLaren Technology Centre, McKinnon said that “eight out of ten security breaches involve some kind of compromised identity” and whether it's the initial point of compromise, or attackers using the initial point of compromise to move through a privileged account, he said that Okta can “help solve the identity and security challenge.”
Exciting but Daunting
Announcing the launch of new technologies in the GenAI space, and new Okta Platform capabilities, McKinnon said the challenges his company is facing are “exciting, but also daunting because you have to make it all work together. You have to innovate, you have to mitigate your risks, so the stakes for all of this have have never been higher.”
Reiterating the company’s Secure Identity Commitment, McKinnon said there was a need to make products “that not only provide great security outcomes for our customers, but those products are built and delivered in a way that's secure and secure by default.
“We believe that we can do something very important, which is lead the industry and eventually eliminate all identity-based attacks. Because the environment that that you're all dealing with and that you're all managing, and you're trying to use your technology environment further your businesses. It's quite complex.”
He acknowledged that with agentic systems and non-human identities proliferating, it is becoming more and more complex, “and at the middle of this web of complexity is our identity management products.”
Harish Peri, SVP of product marketing at Okta, said there are “IT and security buyers who are looking to secure their workforces, their employees, their partners, their contractors, their supplies and on the other hand, you have companies that are looking to create the right experience for their customers, because we the way we like to think about it is.”
Development of Capabilities
This led the development of two launches: for the Okta platform, and within the Auth0 platform. The platform launch sees the addition of capabilities to help businesses secure AI agents and other non-human identities, from AI agents to API keys to employees.
The second launch - Auth for GenAI - is available in Developer Preview, as part of the Auth0 Platform: enabling developers to integrate secure identity into GenAI applications, helping ensure AI agents have built-in authentication, fine-grained authorization, async workflows, and secure API access.
“Every new generation of technology has a new development platform, and that's a tremendous amount of complexity,” McKinnon said. “If we can provide a universal identity layer across all of that, and free you up to choose the best technology and get secure outcomes at the same time, that's tremendously powerful.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
